No truancy

We smile at the commercial in which a child in a highchair mimics his father by saying “antidisestablishmentarianism,” yet no one would teach such complex words to a two-year-old. Further, most adults have no idea what this word means, never mind a child. It is known more for its length than its meaning!

Even adults have to start at the beginning when it comes to learning. Language lessons start with simple words and grammar. Mathematics begins at the basics, not with trigonometry. When I upgrade some of my software, I am glad that I’m working on an upgrade. If I had to start with the latest version, the learning curve would be too steep for me.

When Jesus talked to His disciples, He also realized that they were not ready for the answers to all their questions. Most of them didn’t yet know how little they knew; they were just getting started in their spiritual education. In John 16:12-15, Jesus told them:

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

I’m comforted by this. I know it applies to me too. I know that I don’t know everything and that spiritual understanding ties closely to experiences. Some of the things that I don’t know are related to experiences I’ve not had, even to some experiences that I hope I never have!

Jesus did say that the Spirit would guide His followers into “all truth” though, and if I want to know all, I need to be willing to sit in His classroom. In this place of being teachable, I find only two basic items on the curriculum.

One is that the Holy Spirit teaches me who I am. This course has two subsets: who I am as a helpless sinner who cannot do anything apart from Christ, and who I am as a child of God who is able, through Christ, to do all things.

This basic course begins at salvation and ends when I die. Many of the lessons are difficult, but as long as I am willing to daily wade through the subject matter, and sometimes be overwhelmed by the enormity of what He is showing me, He will teach me all that I need to know.

The second course is “To know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent” (John 17:3). The Holy Spirit introduced me and continues to teach me about Jesus and what He has done to atone for my sin, purge my guilty conscience, and help me to be conformed to His image. Daily, if I stay in the classroom, I learn that no matter how low my old nature takes me, the power of my Savior means forgiveness, cleansing and new life. This course takes care of the negatives learned in the first one.

In these lessons I also learn that He supplies all my needs. I need daily care, contentment, the ability to deal with everything that comes at me in life, a biblical sense of self, and a whole host of other things. Truly, Jesus is all that I need. The Holy Spirit teaches me that reality.

Of course I didn’t learn all this on the first day of school. I could not have taken it in, never mind used it in my life. Instead, He wisely guides me as I need it and can bear it, both in the knowledge of my own sinfulness and in the awareness of His great saving power.

Besides all that, what He teaches is valuable and relevant. I may or may not ever need to know the meaning of antidisestablishmentarianism, but what I do need, He teaches, and He teaches it well. All I need to do is make sure that I stay in school.